ANGELA Jones was on the phone with her husband Scott when he suddenly realized he had left their three-year-old daughter Charlotte in a boiling car.
Horribly – at this point – the “cheeky” boy was trapped indoors for at least four hours as the temperature in Arizona, USA reached 98F (36C).
5
5
It was September 2019, and Scott was dropping his two oldest daughters off at school before returning to his home office for a day of work.
Four hours later, Angela called to ask how the youngest Charlotte was doing after the couple decided to keep her out of preschool that week.
But Scott had forgotten that Charlotte was also in the car with him that morning.
“Suddenly I could hear panic in his voice,” said Angela Fox News Digital.
“At first I thought she had gotten into the pool or something, and then he said, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t think I ever got her out of the car.’
After realizing his mistake, the distraught father ran to the garage and found his daughter cooking in his car.
He called 911, but it was too late, Charlotte was already succumbing to the scorching heat.
She received medical treatment at the scene and was later rushed to a nearby hospital, where she later died, according to central.
The 9 Red Flag Signs of Heatstroke in Your Child
Heatstroke is a potentially fatal side effect of heat.
It happens when someone gets so hot that their body can’t control its temperature.
In children, symptoms may include:
1. Go limp and sleep
2. Hot, red, dry skin
3. Headache, dizziness or confusion and restlessness
4. Rapid breathing and heartbeat
5. Seizures
6. Little or no sweating
7. Body temperature rises to 40.5ºC or more
8. Loss of consciousness or fainting
9. Gets worse quickly and becomes unresponsive
What should you do?
- Dial 999 IMMEDIATELY or ask someone to
- Calm them down
- Quickly move them to a cooler environment
- Remove your outer clothing
- Wrap them in a cool, damp sheet
- Keep throwing water on them
- Keep cooling them while you wait for help to arrive
- If the temperature returns to normal and they are no longer hot to the touch, you can stop cooling them.
Source: SNS
One of many
Tragically, little Charlotte is not the only child to have died this way.
On average, 37 children die every year in the US from heatstroke after being trapped inside hot vehicles – often because their parents forgot they were there.
The number of hot car deaths in northern Europe appears to be much lower than in the US.
But this is not surprising given the colder climate than that of the southern US states.
Between 2007-2009, there were 26 cases of heatstroke in France and Belgium, including seven deaths, according to Child Safety Europe, external.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents was unable to recall any cases in the UK.
When the human body reaches temperatures above 40°C (104°F), the brain and other organs are at risk of swelling and death.
Children are most vulnerable because their bodies heat three to five times faster than adults.
‘The light of our family’
Angela said Charlotte was the beating heart of their young family.
“She was our sassy one, the funny one, always making faces, our ham,” said her mother.
“She was the light in our family and we are constantly talking about her,” she added.
Angela is sharing Charotte’s story in a bid to raise awareness of the dangers and risks of car heating in the summer.
“We did everything we could to protect our children and never realized this was a danger until it happened to us,” she said.
“I just want this to resonate with other people so they can have an alternative plan or do things because this is a preventable tragedy and it can be stopped through different measures,” she added.
5
5
The 5 Ways to Make Sure You Never Leave a Child in the Car
For many parents, the idea of accidentally leaving their baby in a hot car seems incomprehensible.
They think, there’s no way I can forget my baby in the car!
But the reality is that almost 25 percent of parents report that – at some point during a trip – they completely forgot that their child under 3 was in the car with them.
And sometimes these memory lapses can lead to tragedy: Many child deaths in hot cars occur when a parent unknowingly leaves their child in the car.
So what can we do to avoid these serious mistakes?
- Leave a clue: Always place the diaper bag (or other baby item) in the front passenger seat as a visual reminder that your baby is in the car with you
- Publish that: Tape a note to your dashboard that says park/look/lock to remind you to always look for your baby before leaving the vehicle
- Opt for rear-seat storage: Instead of tossing items you need to start your day (like your laptop, phone, purse, or employee badge) in the trunk of your car—or in the passenger seat—store them next to your baby’s car seat so you can always look before leaving. Some even recommend always putting your left shoe in the back seat.
- Have a caregiver plan: Ask your caregiver to call you if your child has not arrived at daycare at the scheduled time.
- Check in: If someone other than you is taking your child somewhere, make sure they arrive safely.
- Keep vehicles locked: whether in the garage or garage, cars need to remain locked at all times
- Take a French Horn Lesson: Teach your child to honk if they are trapped inside a vehicle
- Keep the folding rear seats closed: This will help prevent a child from getting into the trunk of your car.
- Get technical support: The BackSeat Safety app reminds the driver to check the back seat when parked, using GPS. And if you use Waze, a traffic app, you can turn on a setting that will remind you to check the backseat when you arrive at the destination you entered in the app.
Source: Happiest Baby
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
